How to Find Your Hair Type: A Simple Self-Test
Curl pattern, porosity, and density all make up your hair type. Here's how to figure out all three at home, without guesswork.
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Key Takeaways
- Hair type is made up of three factors: curl pattern, porosity, and density — not curl pattern alone.
- The curl pattern chart runs from Type 1 (straight) to Type 4 (coily), with A/B/C sub-categories for looseness or tightness.
- A simple float test can give a rough read on porosity: hair that floats is low porosity, hair that sinks quickly is high porosity.
- Density (how many strands per square inch) is different from thickness (the width of each strand) and affects product amount, not necessarily product type.
- Knowing all three factors together explains far more about how your hair behaves than curl pattern alone.
"What's your hair type?" usually gets answered with a single curl pattern number, but that's only one-third of the picture. Curl pattern, porosity, and density together determine how your hair actually behaves — and testing all three at home takes about ten minutes.
Quick Answer: The Three Factors
- Curl pattern: The shape of your hair strand, from Type 1 (straight) to Type 4 (coily), with A/B/C sub-types for looseness or tightness
- Porosity: How easily your hair absorbs and retains moisture — low, medium, or high
- Density: How many individual strands you have per square inch of scalp — fine, medium, or thick
- All three together, not curl pattern alone, determine the right products and techniques for your hair
Testing Your Curl Pattern
- Type 1 (straight): No visible curl or wave, hair lies flat from root to end
- Type 2 (wavy): Loose S-shaped waves, ranging from barely-there (2A) to defined waves (2C)
- Type 3 (curly): Springy, well-defined curls, ranging from loose loops (3A) to tight corkscrews (3C)
- Type 4 (coily): Tightly coiled or zig-zag pattern, ranging from defined coils (4A) to a tighter, less defined pattern (4C)
Many People Have More Than One Pattern
It's common to have different curl patterns in different areas of your head — looser at the crown, tighter at the nape, for example. Base your routine on your most dominant or most challenging pattern.
Testing Your Porosity
Take a clean strand of hair (fallen naturally, not pulled) and drop it into a glass of room-temperature water. If it floats near the top after a few minutes, you likely have low porosity — the cuticle lies flat and resists moisture. If it sinks slowly, you're likely medium porosity — a good balance of absorption and retention. If it sinks quickly, you likely have high porosity — the cuticle is more open and absorbs moisture fast but loses it just as quickly.
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Testing Your Density
- Take a small section of hair at your part and see how easily you can see your scalp through it
- If your scalp is clearly visible with minimal effort, you likely have fine or low density hair
- If you need to actively part the section to see scalp, you likely have medium density
- If your scalp is barely visible even when parting the section, you likely have thick or high density hair
Density Isn't the Same as Strand Thickness
You can have thin individual strands but a high density of them (fine but thick-feeling hair), or thick individual strands with low density (coarse but sparse-feeling hair). Both matter for different reasons.
Putting It All Together
Curl pattern mainly guides technique (how you apply and style products); porosity mainly guides product formulation (lightweight vs. rich, how often to deep condition); density mainly guides product amount (how much you actually need per application). Someone with 3C curls, high porosity, and fine density needs a very different approach than someone with 3C curls, low porosity, and thick density — even though they share the same curl type.
| Factor | What It Guides | How to Test |
|---|---|---|
| Curl pattern | Styling technique | Visual comparison to a curl type chart |
| Porosity | Product formulation (light vs. rich) | Float test with a clean strand |
| Density | Product amount per application | Scalp visibility at the part |
Pros
- Testing curl pattern, porosity, and density together, not just one factor
- Using the float test with a clean, naturally shed strand of hair
- Adjusting product formulation based on porosity, not curl pattern alone
Cons
- Assuming curl pattern alone determines your entire routine
- Testing porosity with a pulled or product-covered strand, skewing results
- Confusing density (strand count) with individual strand thickness
Curl pattern gets all the attention, but porosity is usually the bigger predictor of whether a product will actually work for you.
Final Verdict
Your real hair type is the combination of curl pattern, porosity, and density — not any single one of them. A ten-minute self-test covering all three gives you a far more accurate starting point for choosing products than a curl pattern number alone.
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